Friday, March 20, 2009

This Too Shall Pass’ is at the heart of my understanding of things. I pair it in my mind with the words of the wise old man of Ecclesiastes, who said ,” There is nothing new under the sun “.

Someone once said that at the heart of each victory is future defeat , and at the heart of each defeat is a future victory. Everything changes. Everything moves onward, nothing is ‘stable’.

We can rely on just one unchanging thing: the inevitability of change. This perspective can help you get through the bad times. People tend to think,’ This is too shall pass’, in bad times. But it applies to good times, too,and perhaps more valuably. It helps sharpen your pleasure in the moment. God luck and good times should be seized, enjoyed, reveled in, for they won’t be here forever, and it would be ungrateful not to appreciate them while they are.

My career was kind of low and depressing for a while. Nothing that I was doing was working. I thought, ‘This is a bad time. I have to keep doing my work, keep attempting to produce something that is meaningful and that I respect. Then I became so engaged by my work and my thoughts that I sort of forgot to remember that I was in bad times. I started believing I was in a peaceful time, with fewer demands. I could find more coherence, more depth, in the other spheres of my life.

Then good times came, as good times will. Though it was not on career front it was on personal front. I thought : ‘Great, keep going, by the way, let’s go to a nice restaurant and toast my god fortune, But when you know this too shall pass, it has a way of tempering your ego. You’re not doing well because you are the best at what you do. You’re doing well because you are still trying to do good work,and a good time came and lifted it up.

So next time happiness comes your way, take a moment to send a little thank you note, pause to breathe in the joy before it disappears into infinity.

All this applies in one’s personal life of course. If we are alone. People will enter our life. If we are surrounded by friends. Someday it will be less crowded around us. If we ever have a broken heart. It will heal. Everything changes.

All we have to do is the best we can. A high wave comes,a crushing waves comes, a gentle swell follows. Whatever comes, stay in your boat. And enjoy the ride. And row.